Energy Democracy Media Roundup – week of October 30, 2017

Utilities are adapting and expanding their models of community solar; Electric vehicles are gaining popularity and will be the key to sustainable and clean cities; and a coalition of independent solar companies is harnessing its combined power to command more influence in the marketplace.

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“The community solar model is still evolving,” energy consultant Jill Cliburn told Utility Dive. Cliburn is project manager for the Department of Energy-backed Community Solar Value Project, a public-private partnership. “We have to move through a period of innovation, which is by nature a bit unfocused,” she said.

But that innovation is happening — for example, with community solar developers adding complementary attributes like energy storage or demand response to their systems.

The worldwide average cost of wind and solar power has fallen sharply over the last three years, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency. While these sources of energy make up a small portion of the overall system — for example, about 15 percent of electricity generated in the United States last year and 24 percent generated worldwide — they are growing fast: Two-thirds of generation capacity added globally last year came from renewable sources.

EV sales are up 16 percent this year. There are currently 13,203 EVs on the road in Michigan and 332 publicly available charging stations. Michigan ranks in the top half nationally for EVs and charging infrastructure, but falls behind states like California, New York and Florida, whose policies encourage driving electric. Those policies include zero-emission vehicle requirements, clean air requirements and energy storage mandates.

The disconnect between what customers want and what utilities offer exists in markets, rural and urban, nationwide. State regulators, which generally have broad oversight authority over how utilities address customer needs, tend to be the main arbiters in debates over what utilities should do, and how.

In a significant move toward easing such tensions, Minnesota regulators confirmed earlier this year they are considering forming a subcommittee specifically to handle conflicts sprouting from distributed generation projects. While the specific mandate of the prospective body remains murky, it would be designed to fill a gap in the regulatory process that leaves customers at a disadvantage.

Just as undeniable are the benefits of the booming clean energy economy, which is why Illinois will continue in a different direction. Late last year, Illinois passed the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), landmark legislation that will increase energy efficiency savings, build new, in-state renewable energy while investing in low-income communities and encourage job growth.

EV sales are up 16 percent this year. There are currently 13,203 EVs on the road in Michigan and 332 publicly available charging stations. Michigan ranks in the top half nationally for EVs and charging infrastructure, but falls behind states like California, New York and Florida, whose policies encourage driving electric. Those policies include zero-emission vehicle requirements, clean air requirements and energy storage mandates.

When a developer suggested in 2015 that the Mankato-based School Sisters of Notre Dame sign up as a subscriber for the power generated by a planned solar array in the area, the nuns had a more ambitious idea: build the array on our land.

Two years later, Innovative Power Systems of Roseville is beginning construction on a 1.3 megawatt solar array with roughly 40,000 solar panels capable of creating enough energy to power 165 average Minnesota homes.

But in sunny southern Nevada, the focal point of change is solar energy. Last year Acciona, a global infrastructure and renewable energy company, unveiled a 400-acre, 64-megawatt solar power plant in Boulder City, just south of Las Vegas. The third-largest such plant in the world, the facility can power more than 14,000 homes a year – and helped the Las Vegas city government fulfill its promise to power all its municipal and public buildings entirely with renewable energy. The city has since been named among the nation’s top 10 metros leading the way on solar power.

Head to the roof of the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies and you’ll discover row upon row of solar photovoltaic panels.

The solar panels generate about 159 kilowatts of renewable energy, just a drop in New York City’s energy bucket, and are part of a citywide initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050.

For struggling governments around the world, privatizing utilities has come to be seen as a kind of get-rich-quick scheme, offering an upfront infusion of cash to underfunded municipalities. Given Prepa’s size and that of its debt — $9 billion — it has been a long-standing target for privatizers, even before Congress passed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act last year to help rein in Puerto Rico’s mounting debt crisis.

The worldwide average cost of wind and solar power has fallen sharply over the last three years, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency. While these sources of energy make up a small portion of the overall system — for example, about 15 percent of electricity generated in the United States last year and 24 percent generated worldwide — they are growing fast: Two-thirds of generation capacity added globally last year came from renewable sources.

It’s widely accepted that electric vehicles will become increasingly popular and affordable in coming years, and utilities are trying to make sure their grids can handle an influx of vehicles plugged in.

But a recent study by the global consulting firm Deloitte argues that utilities should embrace electric vehicles even more aggressively, treating them almost like power plants and “batteries on wheels,” incorporating them into the fabric of their electricity delivery and generation systems and ideally into their rate-bases.

“The community solar model is still evolving,” energy consultant Jill Cliburn told Utility Dive. Cliburn is project manager for the Department of Energy-backed Community Solar Value Project, a public-private partnership. “We have to move through a period of innovation, which is by nature a bit unfocused,” she said.

But that innovation is happening — for example, with community solar developers adding complementary attributes like energy storage or demand response to their systems.

The disconnect between what customers want and what utilities offer exists in markets, rural and urban, nationwide. State regulators, which generally have broad oversight authority over how utilities address customer needs, tend to be the main arbiters in debates over what utilities should do, and how.

In a significant move toward easing such tensions, Minnesota regulators confirmed earlier this year they are considering forming a subcommittee specifically to handle conflicts sprouting from distributed generation projects. While the specific mandate of the prospective body remains murky, it would be designed to fill a gap in the regulatory process that leaves customers at a disadvantage.